Slideshow

mercoledì 31 dicembre 2014

I made a ranking about the ability of scoring or not conceding an equalizer.The data are all from the current season, and refers to the domestic leagues of England, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain.I took them from soccerstats.com

The first table refers to the ability to score an equalizer after having conceded a goal that gave the lead to the opponent.I took into consideration only the teams who conceded a "leading goal" to the opponent a number of times equal at least to the 66% of the matches played.MP = matches playedGGLO = number of goals that gave the lead to the opponentsEGS = number of equalizer goals scored by the teamATE = ability to equalize (ratio between EGS and GGLO)

For example, Inter Milan played 16 matches this season, conceding 14 times a goal that gave the lead to their opponents, and 9 times they were able to equalize it. Their ability to equalize is then 64,29% (9/14).

The second table is about the ability to not conceding an equalizer after having taken the lead.I took into consideration only the teams who scored a "leading goal" a number of times equal at least to the 66% of the matches played.MP = matches playedGGL = number of goals that gave the lead to the teamEGC = number of equalizer goals conceded to the opponentOATE = opponent's ability to equalize (ratio between EGC and GGL)

Real Madrid played 15 games, scored 15 "leading goals" and conceded only 2 equalizers to their opponents, for an OATE of 13.33% (2/15). When they take the lead of a match, they hardly lose it.

Please note that a team could score or concede more than one "leading goal" and/or equalizer per game. Example: team A vs team B; team A scores the first goal of the match, going on 1-0; then team B equalizes to 1-1; then team A scores the 2-1, and team B scores the final 2-2. In this match, team A scored 2 goals that gave them the lead, and conceded 2 equalizers; viceversa for the team B, who scored 2 equalizers and conceded 2 goals that gave the lead to the opponent.

giovedì 18 dicembre 2014

In the following table there are the goals scored per game in the main 10 European leagues, considering the last 5 seasons plus the current one until the last weekend's matches (included).You can also see the trend for each league.Dutch Eredivisie is the league where most goals per game are scored every season.This season, England and Spain have a decrease compared to all the previous 5 years.Belgium and Portugal are the only ones that have an increment in respect to the last season.

These are the ones who scored the most in the first 15 minutes of the match:Valencia (ESP, 9 goals)Wolfsburg (GER, 8)Chelsea (ENG, 7)Benfica (POR, 7)Moenchengladbach (GER, 7)Stoke City (ENG, 6)Sporting CP (POR, 6)Real Madrid (ESP, 6)

As you can see, Sporting CP are present in both the rankings; they have a curious distribution of goals:1-15: 6 goals16-30: 131-45: 246-60: 361-75: 676-90: 4>90: 3They score very few goals between 16th and 60th minute, but they balance scoring more in the rest of the match, injury time included.

lunedì 15 dicembre 2014

In the round of 16 there will be 3 unprecedented matches: Shakhtar Donetsk-Bayern Munich, Arsenal-Monaco and Basel-Porto.

Three matches were played only once in the past. Two of them were played last year in the same round: Manchester City - Barcelona (Barcelona won 2-0 in Manchester and 2-1 at home) and Schalke 04 - Real Madrid (Real dominated 6-1 and 3-1).

Also Bayer Leverkusen - Atlético Madrid was played just once, in 2010-2011 Group Stage: both matches ended 1-1.

Paris SG and Chelsea played against each other twice, in 2004-2005 and 2013-2014. The total balance sees 2 wins for Chelsea, 1 for PSG and a draw. Last year they played the quarter-final: Chelsea lost 1-3 in Paris and then won 2-0 at home, managing to go through.

Juventus and Borussia Dortmund confronted each other 4 times, with a total of 7 matches played: the balance is in favour of Juventus, with 4 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses. However, Borussia won 3-1 the most important one: the CL final in 1996-1997; this is also the last match played between these two clubs.

venerdì 12 dicembre 2014

According to the ECRS, after the Group Stage Legia Warsaw*(Poland) kept the lead of the ranking, with 325,83 points.At the second place, Dynamo Moscow (Russia) gained a couple of points and now they have 322,06.At the third place, with 289,95 points, we find Villareal (Spain).The best team in Champions League is Porto (Portugal), at 5th overall place with 278,58 points.The worst team still in the competition is Liverpool (England), who are in the 122nd position, with 83,99 points.

The complete ranking is here.* Please note: Legia Warsaw was punished by UEFA for fielding an ineligible player in their 2-0 second leg's win over Celtic in the third qualifying round. I decided to consider it as a 0-3 lost, as stated by the official UEFA sentence.

sabato 6 dicembre 2014

I checked which are the most efficient teams in winning games after they scored the first goal.

In the tables below there are the top 10 (considering the main 6 European leagues) for the last and the current season.The FTS/total field indicates how many times the team scored first on the total of the matches played (only in the domestic league).The percentage is simply the ratio between these two numbers.The W D L fields shows how the matches ended for that team, and the avg pts are the average points made by the team on those matches.For the ranking to be more consistent, I considered only the teams that scored the first goal in at least half of the games played.You can see that in this season there are 4 teams that always won the matches which they scored first in.

I did the same thing for the teams whose opponent scored first, to see which are the best teams in coming back after having conceded the first goal of the match.The fields are as above, with the difference that here are considered the matches which the opponent scored first in.

venerdì 5 dicembre 2014

This is the European club teams ranking according to the Domestic Leagues Ranking System.As explained in the linked post, this system takes into account the matches played in the 10 main European leagues, with the points made, the goals scored and conceded by each team, and the strength of the league.These are the best ten teams as of today, 5 December 2014: